Small earthquake off Yarmouth felt by a few

A small earthquake (2.9 magnitude) occurred 41 km NWN of Yarmouth just before 7 a.m. on Aug. 25. Some people in the Clare region noticed a rumbling.

YARMOUTH, N.S. - A small earthquake, 41 kilometres northwest of Yarmouth, occurred at just before 7 a.m. Friday.

Some residents in the Clare region heard rumbling and noticed their power flickering.

Patsy Beck lives in Saulnierville Station. The sound awakened her.

“I woke up startled as it sounded like my husband or someone was in the house and making noise like walking loudly or shutting the cupboards loudly or dropping things,” she said.

She noticed her power going off and on and no one was in the house but she and her dog. She then turned to social media, wondering if an accident had occurred down the road.

Charelle Thibault in Saulnierville also heard a rumbling

“I knew I heard something odd. I was studying and I heard this long rumbling noise. I actually looked out my window and said to myself, ‘What the hell was that?’”

Allison Bent, a seismologist at Natural Resources Earthquakes Canada, says the earthquake was recorded at 2.9 magnitude WNW of Yarmouth, but she’s doubtful it was the reason behind flickering power.

“It seems funny for something that small and the fact that it is 40 km away to have that effect. It could be coincidental,” she said.

The earthquake was big enough that people might have felt it, she added.

“They shouldn’t have felt it very strongly but they might have noticed it.”

When asked how big an earthquake had to be before there was a danger of a tsunami developing, she replied that it has to be a magnitude of 7 or larger.

“It really has to be a large earthquake. There could be extenuating circumstances if something triggered an underwater landslide but those are usually local and even then a magnitude of 4 or 5 would be very unusual. The rule of thumb is magnitude 7,” she said.

Earthquakes in recent years

Including the Aug. 25 earthquake, this region has experienced at least four earthquakes in the past three years. The other three occurred as follows: